Builder Profile: Citron Guitars and Basses

Working out of a oneman
workshop in
Woodstock, New
York, Harvey Citron has been
a respected member of the
boutique luthier community for
close to 40 years. Though best
known for his hollowbody basses,
Citron’s distinctively handcrafted
instruments include
solidbody basses, as well as a
variety of guitars and baritones
that have drawn the attention
of artists across the genre
spectrum, from Steve Swallow
to John Sebastian to Doug
Wimbish, among others.

With a background as both a
guitarist and an architect, Citron
is able to draw on his passion for
both music and design when creating
his absolutely unique offering
of instruments. Aesthetically
unique, yes. But he is also part
of a very small group of guitar
craftsmen with expertise in making
their own pickups, and he
winds, voices, and positions each
one to complement the individual
instrument. A true innovator,
Citron’s distinctive, piezo-loaded
and intonation-adjustable wooden
bridge defines the combination
of science and art.

Citron got his start as a
luthier in 1974. Co-founding a
partnership with Joe Veillette the
following year, Veillette-Citron
had an eight-year run during
which a few hundred handcrafted
guitars were produced.
But eventually, Citron felt like a
factory worker in his own business,
putting in too many hours
just to pay the bills. A desire to
return to designing his instruments
led him to set up shop as
an independent luthier.

Premier Guitar recently caught
up with Citron as he prepared
to exhibit at the 2012 Montreal
Guitar Show. Here he discusses
his background and building
philosophies, gives insights into
modern lutherie trends, and even
shares his thoughts on building a
traditional acoustic guitar.

As a working musician and
former architect, which of the
two was the biggest inspiration
for your getting into
building guitars?
It’s actually very hard to separate
the two. I grew up being
interested in tools, working
with my hands, building things
since I was very little, playing
guitar by age 11, and loving
music completely. I attended
Brooklyn Technical High
School where I studied drafting
and engineering, and then studied
architectural design at City
College School of Architecture.
I was incredibly frustrated as I
started out working as an architect,
since I was not really doing
anything more than producing
working drawings of others’
designs. I was very young, but
had a fire burning inside to
create. I was creating through
my music—and my furniture
and interior design—but not
through my job. Then the
opportunity came to build a
guitar. Because of all my years
drafting and studying design, I
knew I could look at a guitar,
understand how it was built,
and could actually build it! I
could explore to my heart’s content.
So what better avenue for
a musician and a designer? I was
able to meld these two areas of
creativity that I loved.

Built for renowned jazz bassist Steve Swallow, Harvey
Citron’s AE5 Swallow bass is an acoustic/electric
5-string with a 36" scale length using Honduras
mahogany for the body and neck, spruce for the top,
and rosewood for the fretboard and bridge.

Which has had the biggest
influence on your work?
Again, it’s very hard to say
which has been the larger influence.
As a designer, I have
always been seeking out what
hasn’t been done yet, or to solve
a problem. Each of my instrument
models sets about creating
something new sonically and/
or physically—they are not just
pretty boutique instruments.
Because I am a designer, I can
play with woods, construction,
electronics, and shapes. Because
I am a musician, I can use those
elements to explore new tone.

What were your formative
influences insofar as guitarists,
bands, and instruments?
I started playing guitar in the
1950s at a very early age and
was listening to people like Elvis
Presley and Chuck Berry. But
I only had an acoustic guitar
at the time. We were poor and
my mom bought the cheapest
Martin you could buy—a
00-17 with a mahogany top and
no binding. I did everything
with that guitar and amplified
it with a DeArmond pickup
and an Ampeg Rocket amplifier.
Even later on, I was using
that same guitar for soul music.
Developing my own style back
then, I was pretty much a
rhythm guitar player for a long
time, but later on became a lead
player, too.

Eventually you began building
basses as well. Was your
attraction to the rhythm side
of playing part of the reason
for that?
I just love instruments and
playing. Building basses for
me was always part of the deal
from the beginning somehow.
Veillette-Citron’s first prototypes
were a 6-string neckthrough
electric guitar and
4-string neck-through electric
bass. Our first batch of instruments
was also mixed, and
I’m sure we built more basses
than guitars over the years our
company existed from 1975 to
1983. With the exception of
Alembic, bass design had not
really been explored that extensively
in the mid-’70s. While in
process of building our first two
prototypes in 1974, I visited
the Alembic woodworking shop
in Cotati, California. It was a
mind blower. I was enamored of
their work, and followed their
lead somewhat in construction
at Veillette-Citron. I have
always noticed that bassists are a
little more open to new sounds,
and are already hi-fidelity minded.
So many guitarists are looking
for the sound that a hero
of theirs made some time ago,
and they are under the illusion
that it if they have the same
equipment, they can recreate
that tone. I never had the desire
to build what has been made
before. It also seemed like there
were more orders for basses.

Citron’s intonation-adjustable rosewood
bridge on the AE4 Swallow
features bone saddles and six EMG
under-saddle piezos.

Why is that?
It’s always been my impression
that there are far fewer bassists
than guitarists. Therefore, the
chances of a bassist working
are much higher than that of a
guitarist. And the quality of the
bassist doesn’t even have to be
as good necessarily, because you
need them and there aren’t that
many around. [Laughs.]

Can you tell us about your
pickups and how you got
started making them? Was
it a matter of wanting to be
involved in all components
of building? Was it out of
necessity or just an interest in
electronics?
Pickup making and guitar
making came about
simultaneously for me. I
knew some pretty serious
players in the guitar electronics
field way back, found out how
to wire a guitar, and then how
to build pickups. It was very
exciting to build a pickup. The
person who taught me how to
build them was Sal Palazolla,
who worked with Bill Lawrence
making pickups downstairs in
Danny Armstrong’s shop on
LaGuardia Place in New York
City. This was in 1974. The
first guitar I built had some
pretty strange pickups, and
people started asking me to
modify their guitars with my
pickups and different switching
arrangements. Veillette-Citron
started building prototypes in
late 1975 and those instruments
included my humbucking
pickups. We liked the idea of
having a part in virtually every
piece of the instrument, from
making our own pickups to
the bridge hardware and strap
pins. Though when I started
Citron Guitars and Basses in
1994, I had no desire to build
my own pickups, except for one
very unique single-coil that I
began to make for some models.
As time went on, I felt that
my pickups would make my
instruments more unique, so I
currently build several kinds of
single-coil guitar pickups, guitar
humbuckers, bass humbuckers,
and J-bass-style
pickups. They are
extremely popular and are,
in fact, used in other luthier’s
instruments.

Associate Editor Rich Osweiler started playing guitar at the tender age of 8, but over the years bass has become his main instrument. Prior to joining Premier Guitar, Rich worked at Acoustic Guitar for close to 10 years, most recently as associate publisher and director of marketing. He loves all types of music—from gypsy jazz to lo-fi and grindcore—provided the genre name isn’t preceded by the “contemporary” tag. Outside of music, Rich enjoys travel, skiing, backpacking, and learning how to be a dad. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, daughter, and their dog, Kiko.

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